


I Need My Girl

by rainbowanatomy



Series: Steinoru [4]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: 20 years or so before the start of the show, F/F, Mutual Pining, Pining, mostly just tina and janet, the others have brief speaking roles or mentions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-10-23 18:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17688806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowanatomy/pseuds/rainbowanatomy
Summary: I am good, I am groundedDavy says that I look tallerI can’t get my head around itI keep feeling smaller and smaller(I Need My Girl - The National)





	1. I’m under the gun again, I know I was the 45% of then

**Author's Note:**

> The one where they all meet and Tina Minoru falls in love with Janet Stein.

Tina Minoru has never been nervous about anything in her life… except maybe when it comes to making friends. The last time she had a best friend was in middle school, a redhead named Clare who had freckles that she liked to play connect the dots with after they had finished practicing kissing – an absurd activity that apparently all their classmates had partaken in, and Clare hated feeling left out. She never told her mom, obviously, and they had never gotten caught, but part of her wonders if, maybe, they hadn’t been as slick as they thought, because one day she was waiting on top of the monkey bars for Clare, their declared throne of recess, and Clare had walked right by her and joined the soccer game with all the kids they made fun of. Clare told them that Tina liked practicing a little _too_ much and she was called lots of things until high school, when she became so cold and harsh that no one dared to look twice at her. She learned to watch each move that much more carefully, and that friends weren’t worth it.

College was… different. Most of it was spent in a blur of computer science classes and tequila and somehow she came out the other side engaged to a man that was as boring as he was smart and sweet. Her parents approved, one of the only things they had given her, and she and Robert had created the biggest tech company in California. She turned down every coffee invite from people she’d graduated with, and let herself become just another face in the technology field. Well, not _just_ , but the point was that if her “friends” wanted to see her, they could google her. It suited her just fine.

Even tonight. Someone named Jonah, who had gifted the Minorus money they didn’t need but greedily accepted, had arranged a meeting with 10 other people. She’s back in fifth grade standing in front of the Wilders’ door, waiting to be let into some birthday party like the ones in fifth grade. Robert’s hand brushes hers, travels up the back of her arm, and she squeezes her eyes shut, withholding a sigh so big it hurts her throat. “How are you?” Robert asks, voice too soft and too kind. “Fine,” she returns, quick and dismissive. His hand leaves her shoulder, sadness palpable. Where she is unrevealing, her husband is an open book. She hates it. But she isn’t so heartless. She lets her hand take his for a second until the door swings open.

“Tina and Robert Minoru, come in,” says the tall, pretty woman standing on the other side.

“Catherine Wilder,” Tina greets, stepping into the house’s threshold. “So nice to finally meet you,” Robert murmurs at her side, giving one of the smiles she likes the most (uncertain). Catherine gestures them in farther into the foyer; it’s huge, ceilings reaching for the sky, arching back on itself. She is a little surprised by how openly she marvels (only for a few heartbeats). “Please, help yourself,” Catherine says, nodding to a table with a beautiful spread and many, _many_ glasses of – champagne? White wine? She doesn’t care. “The others are already in my husband’s study.”

 _Others._ Like they are all on some big playdate that someone who didn’t have a last name set them up on. She picks up a glass and downs it in one sip – white wine, dry – and sets it down. It kind of is like a play date. But at least there’s alcohol. Robert watches her pick up another cup with only a slight eyebrow raise, says nothing, and sets about making a plate for himself. Her stomach growls softly and she decides she might as well eat something, at least to counteract the wine she knows she’s going to have more of. She makes a plate and then heads towards the door Catherine disappeared through, listening to Robert’s shoes squeak as he catches up to her.

10 heads turn their way as they step into the study, decked out in beautiful wood and art. The pair stares back; Tina’s eyes sweep across the group, skipping over the two redheads who take her back too far into her preteenhood, and settle on a woman with blonde hair and long legs. The woman must feel her staring because she looks back at her and Tina’s faced with blue eyes so soft she feels her heart stop so suddenly she’s not convinced she’s not having a heart attack. The blonde smiles at her, just a wink of teeth, before the man next to her, who Tina instantly recognizes as his epitaph, the Great Victor Stein, spreads his hands.

“Tina and Robert Minoru, Wizard geniuses,” he says, in a voice just a touch too loud, making the blonde woman cringe, shrink back. Ah. Yes. His wife… the name escapes her as he continues, “I wonder what the three of us could create – Wizard and Nemo.” Robert steps forward with a nod, and the pair is folded into the mix. One of the redheads, the short one with big glasses, blocks her view of the blonde and nods eagerly at her plate as she approaches.

“Stacey Yorkes, Synnergy scientist,” Stacey Yorkes says, and Tina remembers reading her information one night in bed this week, “I made that brie.” She looks down at the nice chunk of cheese on her plate and gives it a small smile.

“I have to try it first then.” It’s delicious, better than any cheese she’s ever known, “I don’t say this very often but – this is really good.” Stacey gives her a grin, nicer than she ever expects, but then Robert’s at her side, saying exactly what she’s thinking and she vows to pretend to hate it because… well… Instead of analyzing her relationship with her husband, Tina knocks back the rest of her second glass and sets it on the table, taking a couple of steps away from Stacey and Robert, gripping the table with one table and trying to steady her food with the other.

“The Yorkeses are really sweet,” someone says at her elbow, and she turns, suddenly swimming in ocean blue eyes. She must be wearing her ‘fuck off’ face because the woman’s smile falters, but holds out a hand. “I’m Janet.”

“Tina,” Tina says, because she can’t remember anything else, and arranges her face to a half smile, making sure her uneven heartbeat isn’t making her features do anything weird. Janet’s smile twitches back to its full force.

“My husband is a big admirer of your work.”

“And you?”

“You are a very impressive woman.”

“Thank you.” She feels warmth flicker at the edge of her jaw.

“Another glass?” Janet asks, offering her the glass in her hand.

“Oh, uh, yes, thanks.” She reaches for it, her fingers landing over Janet’s. Maybe it’s because she hadn’t eaten before the wine, maybe it’s because she’s still on edge about meeting so many people, but she can’t hold in the sound she makes at the contact, somewhere between a gasp and a whine. It’s only because of the wine that she lets her fingers linger. At least that’s what she’s telling herself, waist deep in those soft blue eyes. Her face is hot; she’s definitely blushing now. “S-sorry,” she musters after realizing that letting their hands touch any longer than they have been would be… strange. Janet shakes her head, still smiling, murmuring, “For what?” It’s rhetorical, but so many answers burn in Tina’s brain.

It occurs that she still hasn’t taken the wine glass, that Janet isn’t moving away, and that if they were alone and she was just a bit drunker, she would already be leaning in. She’s already close enough to smell the Colgate and wine on Janet’s breath, and she wants, desperately, to learn what that combination tastes like. Instead, she grips the glass better and pulls it towards her, Janet’s fingers slipping out from under hers, and takes a long swallow. “Nice color,” the woman nods at her fingers. The compliment damn near turns her the same shade as her nail polish. She opens her mouth to say, ‘Thank you,’ but instead, 

“Your eyes.” The words slip passed her lips before she can pull them back – not that she could, the alcohol is definitely starting to get to her – and she goes cold. The room around her is still busy with conversation, but the only thing that matters is the puzzled, adorable – adorable? – look fluttering across Janet’s features. “They-“ she cuts herself off, trying to find the rest of the words, “They’re really…” She hasn’t been at loss for words since Clare marched passed her and ended their friendship. She shakes her head and finishes her wine.

“Impressive,” Janet just chuckles, the confusion still there, just under the surface. This transparency is strangely endearing. “Oh, uh, I think your husband is, uh,” Janet jerks her chin over to Robert, who is trying to catch her attention. How long has he been trying? “Right. Sorry… Excuse me.” She floats – or she hopes she floats – over to her husband. The rest of the night, she feels those blue eyes on her.

_(When Robert touches her after their first meeting (they were given a name – PRIDE – and it felt very fitting, as nearly everyone in the room felt like a lion, spring loaded, ready to pounce) she imagines Janet’s fingertips dancing across her skin. It is definitely because she is drunk that she let the imagined touch turn into an imagined body and moans. Robert laughs afterwards, kissing her neck, spouting some I’m-a-good-husband-and-I-love-you compliments and she licks over the cut she’d opened up in her lip biting back Janet’s name.)_


	2. I know I was a lot of things. But I am good, I am grounded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where it’s their fifth PRIDE meeting and Janet Stein realizes just how in love she is with Tina Minoru.

At first, Janet Stein didn’t understand who she was. She knew she loved science and inventing and space. She knew she was brilliant with math and physics and gravity. She knew she liked pineapples and champagne more than oranges and white wine. She knew she hated The Office (very unpopular opinion) and when her husband “forgot” how strong he was and left bruises on her arms (very popular opinion, yet she tells no one). She knew these random facts about herself – favorite cereal, shoe size, first time – but what she hadn’t known, what she hadn’t wanted to know, was why her heart used to beat so damn fast whenever she was around her lab partner back in 9th grade. The girl – Jessica, Jay to her – had tight curly hair that swayed in time with her hips, and always smelled like the peppermint gum she’d been chewing, or the cigarette she’d been smoking, right before the class broke out the beakers and sodium hydroxide. Jay kissed her, once, the only time Janet had smelled vodka on the girl’s breath, in the bathroom of a party, right before throwing up. 

Okay, she isn’t _stupid_ , far from, and she knows now, years later, very, very well as to just why Jay made her feel like all the cheesy pop love songs back in the 90s. But she’s Janet Stein now, for better or for worse. _Worse_ , she thinks with a wounded snort as she flicks through her sweaters, trying to find one that will cover up the fresh bruise on her wrist, _this is definitely for worse._ Victor had just gripped too tight when she knocked something off his desk, deadly silent, breath smelling surprisingly like oranges and not liquor, until she couldn’t hold in her wince and hiss of pain and he let go. And now they have a PRIDE meeting to go to – the first one at the Minoru house – and she wants to wear a dress that, unfortunately, doesn’t have sleeves.

She could wear something else, but she loves the way the pink matches her blush and contrasts her eyes and, well, it makes her look _hot_ , too, the fabric hugging her waist, neckline a sharp ‘v’ – now that she has friends, she can thank Catherine Wilder and Leslie Dean for the sudden confidence in her own figure. “Wow.” She turns towards the sound of her husband’s voice, feeling her shoulders hunch in just a little. “Janet, love, you look _sexy,_ ” Victor laughs, grabbing the bruised wrist and pressing a rough kiss there, “What’s gotten into you?” She gives a half-hearted chuckle and holds her breath until he saunters into their master bathroom.

_What’s gotten into you?_ The words swirl around in her head as they drive to the meeting. Her sweater is black and its sleeves reach the middle of her palm. Victor makes a sharp left and Janet takes in the curly hair and plume of smoke of a woman leaning against a car in the second it takes for them to pass her. She always thinks about Jay on the nights of PRIDE meetings. _What’s gotten into you?_

The question should be: _who’s_ gotten into you? The answer would be –

“Good evening, Victor, Janet,” Tina Minoru says when they’re standing at the door to the Minoru home. “Good evening, Tina,” Victor returns, giving a too bright smile as he shakes her hand and heads inside without looking behind him. Tina turns to her; Janet hopes she’s not seeing things when she sees those dark brown eyes sweep up her body, and blush start to creep across those cheeks. Though she probably is, she tells herself, even as Tina leans in to press the corner of her lips to her cheek as a greeting. The contact sends her bloods jittering in her veins. Janet has noticed that Tina doesn’t do that with any of the other PRIDE women – not that it _matters_ , no, she’s just an observant person. Except that it does. It matters to her very, very much.

“We have white and red wine. And champagne as well, if you’d like?”

“Hm?” Janet zones back in, realizing she’s still in Tina Minoru’s doorway and the woman is nodding her in, looking at her with quirked eyebrows. “Oh, yes, champagne would be lovely, thank you.” She steps passed the threshold after Tina, and expects to turn towards the sounds of the couples that have already arrived, but instead Tina turns in the other direction and leads her into the kitchen. The woman pulls out a bottle of unopened champagne from a fridge below the counter. “You don’t have to open a new bottle for me-“

“Nonsense,” Tina says, leaning the bottle over the sink, “I know you prefer this over wine.”

“Still,” Janet starts, “I don’t expect-“ The cork pops off, bounces off the inside of the sink and lands somewhere in the dim room.

“Too late,” Tina murmurs, pulling a glass from the cabinet above her and pouring a generous amount into it. Their hands meet around the glass; they’d been doing that for the past four PRIDE meetings, and it quickly became the thing Janet looked forward to so much each month. These quick moments of contact with someone who makes her feel the same way Jay did – even better. Tina’s looking at her still, so close she could just lean in if she wanted to. “You’ve got, uh,” is all the woman says before reaching her free hand out and brushing a strand of hair away from Janet’s mouth, tucking it behind her ear. “There. All set now.”

Tina’s breath smells like spearmint and red wine. It makes her head dizzy and her heart do things it never did – _does_ – for Victor. She thinks she’d like to kiss the woman. In the kitchen. Their husbands one room over. Instead, she takes the cup from Tina and tilts it to her lips, finishing it with embarrassing speed. Tina doesn’t say anything, just refills the cup and tilts her head towards the sound of Dale Yorkes and Alice Hernandez laughing.

“We should head in there,” the woman says, and Janet nods because what else can she do.

Leslie tells her she looks really good, and Catherine tells her she looks _hot_ and compliments her for taking a page out of her own book. Stacey Yorkes rolls her eyes with a grin and says she’s not going to objectify her, but if she _were_ , “You’d definitely be stunning.” Alice nods in agreement and asks where she got the dress. Only Tina says nothing, floating from person to person, but eyes always straying back to her. _Ok_ , she thinks after her second glass of champagne and first glass of red, _she’s definitely blushing_.

She messes up towards the end of the night. Leslie is giving a little speech, relaying some messages from Jonah, and Tina is standing next to her, so close Tina’s shoulder is pressed against her upper arm, so she’s feeling _very_ warm. Without thinking, she tugs up one of her sleeves. And then the other. She only realizes what she’s done when she feels Tina’s lithe fingers on her right sweater sleeve, and feels the fabric traveling back up to her hand. No one else is looking.

After the meeting, as everyone is saying their goodbyes and is filtering out, Tina keeps a hand on her, holding her back. She’d explode with the touch if her cheeks weren’t burning so hot with shame. “Honey?” Victor says behind her, the Steins being the last pair remaining, “I’m going to wait in the car, ok?” She nods quickly, and, because he’s the Terrible Victor Stein he says, “Don’t be to long.” Robert gives her a nod when Victor’s gone and pads out of the room. The women listen to his footsteps up the stairs before Tina pushes up her sweater sleeve again.

“ _Janet,”_ Tina says, in the tone that Janet fears, that keeps her from telling anyone.

“Tina-“ she starts, her words drying up in her throat, because what can she say? Her heart hammers in her ears, so loud she hopes to drown out whatever words Tina is about to say. But Tina doesn’t say anything, just lifts her wrist to her mouth, presses a soft kiss there, leaves a red lipstick imprint. She makes a sound, somewhere between a hiss and a sigh, and squeezes her eyes shut.

“Do you need anything?” Tina whispers. She shakes her head. “If you do, you call me. _Immediately._ Any time, ok?”

“Ok,” she squeaks, opening her eyes.

Tina’s staring up at her, the only distance between them caused by their height difference. She thinks she’d like to kiss the woman. In the living room. With Victor in the car and Robert upstairs. Her phone ringing interrupts her thought and she jumps, wrenching her arm back. “It’s Victor,” she whispers, “I have to go.”

“Janet,” Tina returns, the hands that were just cradling her arm now on her shoulders, red lipstick coming closer and closer, Tina rising onto tiptoe and her leaning down, “You look _beautiful_ in that dress.”

“Tina, I-“ _Can’t, shouldn’t, want to, need to_. It doesn’t matter, the end of her protest is lost as their lips meet. 

_(When Victor apologizes (in a very dismissive, somewhat sincere tone) later at home, kissing her quickly before heading down to his lab, she pretends it’s Tina. The kiss is still burned into her lips; quick, full, and tender. The kiss left some red on her lips, but Victor didn’t notice when she finally climbed into the car, legs shaking so much she was sure he’d know immediately what had happened. Now she slides into bed, alone for now, and sends a quick text - To: Tina M, 10:08 pm – Thank you xx. – And gets an equality quick response – From: Tina M, 10:09 pm – Anytime ;)_ _x.)_


	3. There’s some things that I should never laugh about in front of family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where they host a fundraiser and Tina Minoru asks Janet Stein to dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG! I'm currently on an immersion semester program in the freakin DESERT and WOODS so I completely forgot to upload the chapters I had finished before I got my laptop and phone taken. Soooooooo anyway I have my laptop today and finished my paper early and figured I should like, ya know, give y'all what you want. so here you go! chapter 3 and probably 4 is coming up in a few minutes too.

It’s the first PRIDE fundraiser and it’s _huge_. The rented ballroom has ceilings almost as beautiful as the Wilders’, and Tina Minoru is strolling through the set up, staring up. Leslie Dean may be the unofficial head of PRIDE, with her – someone has to say it – very lackluster husband, Frank, submissively by her side, but _Tina_ had something the others didn’t – the quiet air of cruelty, honed from her adolescent years. Because of this, she was put in charge of final touches to the fundraiser and had arrived early, alone. The ballroom is empty of employees, all sent to fetch the massive ice sculpture Janet Stein quietly suggested a week before today. How could Tina refuse the woman who kisses like bubblegum and desire?

At the thought of Janet, she pauses, reflecting over the two months since they’d kissed for the first time. There had been a few more since then, after meetings and once, after an impromptu trip to a fancy bar. The memories make her cheeks darken – but for once she’s worn blush and hopes that’s enough. Her phone buzzes. _From: Janet S, 6:30 pm – see you soon xx_ _J._ Her lips flick up into an uncontrollable smile (they’ve been doing that a lot) as she reads it. It’s inconspicuous but _she_ knows what it means and it makes her stomach twist and her veins buzz. _To: Janet S: 6:32 pm – can’t wait x._

When “soon” comes, the fundraiser is in its swing. She’s spotted Janet across the room more than once, but Victor’s arm is firm around her waist. Finally, after thirty more minutes of Tina dodging Robert and staring out of the corner of her eye, the woman is walking straight towards her at the bar. She smooths down her dress and orders an extra glass of champagne. “Tina,” Janet murmurs when she’s in front of her. “Janet,” she returns, leaning up to press a kiss to the scientist’s cheek. The bartender slides the champagne flutes across the bar top.   
“You ordered me a drink?”

“Only the best for my lady.”

The color on Janet’s cheeks is the kind that makes her palms sweaty and her breath hitch. They sip their drinks and watch the room. The party reminds her of the big dances held in her middle school; guests eating hors d’oeuvres on one side, the other half taken up by a sweeping dance floor. The most adult thing about it is the attire and bar. But with Janet next to her, she doesn’t mind the crowd. The string quartet starts to play something, a melody that strikes Tina deep in her chest. She’s never been inclined to be so romantic, but she offers her arm to Janet. “Come,” she whispers, “Dance with me.” 

“Victor and Robert are over there,” Janet breathes. “And you’re right here,” she returns, “And you know how clueless men are.” There’s a moment she’s so afraid that if Janet says no, she’ll be swallowed up by the floor, but then Janet wraps her arm through Tina’s and she feels her heart stop. The scientist is flashing those ocean eyes at her and her knees go weak. She leads the woman onto the dance floor, the pair of them nodding to donors and the Wilders swaying. She stops them closer to the quartet, slightly away from the rest of the dancers, and then puts one hand on Janet’s waist, cupping Janet’s hand with the other. Janet laces their fingers together, puts her free hand on Tina’s shoulder, smiles softly. It’s not the first time Tina’s held Janet’s waist, but it’s the first time she’s not nervous about being “caught”.

Robert, on the other end of the dance floor, chatting up two grey-suited, grey-haired men, looks over and grins at her. She forces the corner of her lips up, then sways Janet so she faces away from her husband. “Janet,” she starts, in the voice she uses to make the scientist blush, “Have I told you yet how _beautiful_ your eyes are?”

“I think you started to,” the scientist chuckles, “When we first met.”

“Fuck, I did try, didn’t I?” How could she forget – it was the first of many times Janet Stein has made her heart do things it has never done for Robert. Janet ‘mm’s in confirmation and she has to push down every urge inside her to kiss her. They sway for the reminder of the piece, and as its tempo switches, Janet’s hand slides down to her waist, fingers digging in between the side cut outs of her dress.

“Janet-“ she starts, feeling heat rise to her cheeks.

“Your blush is matching your dress, which looks really good on you.”

“Yeah?” she manages, brain still caught record-scratching on the fingers brushing her skin.

“Did you wear that just for me?”

_Of course._ “Maybe…”

“I wonder… if you’d like to get out of it.”

“For you? Of course.”

She wants to, she so badly wants to. They’ve flirted about it every moment they’ve kissed, she’s not quite sure why they haven’t yet, – rational decision making, certainly, but _fuck_ , what about irrational pleasures of the flesh? Not to mention Janet is wearing red lipstick tonight, and Tina wants to know what the color would look like on the inside of her thighs. But she wants to do that right; dinner, dessert, some fancy hotel somehow not using Wizard tech in their building, and time to cuddle after, too. Janet deserves that (deserves all that and way more).

“Remind me again… Why do we keep not having sex?” Janet asks, and the very word makes her already hot cheeks hotter.

“I really don’t know… I’d love to get you out of your dress, too.” Janet turns pink; the woman’s blue dress makes her eyes look even more irresistible (which Tina didn’t know was possible until tonight) but she’d give that ‘pop’ up to finally touch every part of the scientist she’s wanted to. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“Victor has an important meeting upstate.”

“Leaving his beautiful, sexy wife alone? I thought you married an evil _genius_.”

“He doesn’t know there’s an equally beautiful, sexy woman trying to seduce me.”

“Spend the night with me. I’ll treat you the way you deserve to be treated.”

“Tina…”  
“Janet…” Janet stops dancing and they stand there, looking at each other, and Tina thinks the floor will swallow her up again, but then Janet whispers, “Yes,” and she could cry.

“Janet, can I borrow my wife?” Robert’s voice sounds next to them moments later. Tina swallows so loud she thinks they both can hear it, but she turns away from the scientist and nods to her husband, taking his outstretched hand – this, she thinks, she can give him. He wants to introduce her to the people he was talking to before.

A few minutes later, her phone buzzes. Tilting her phone away, she reads _From: Janet S: 8:54 pm – five mins x._ So at 8:59 pm, she excuses herself (“Just need to run to the restroom,” she whispers to her husband) and wanders to the bathroom. Janet is leaning against the sink, grinning. She surveys the stalls – all empty – and then flicks the lock behind her.

“Hey, tiger,” Janet chuckles.

“Hey, gorgeous,” she returns, heart roaring in her ears as Janet straightens up and crosses the room to her.

“I needed a moment _alone_ with you.”

“Oh, really? To do what?” Janet’s breath is sweet on her face, making her knees weak all over again. Tina leans into the hand slipping up to caress her face.

“This.”

And then Janet’s kissing her, so deep the floor drops from under her and she’s flying.

_(“Did you have a good time, honey?” Robert asks that night, after the fundraiser and the ride home. She doesn’t lean out from their bathroom, where she’s twisting her hair up into a bun. “Mmm, it was nice,” she allows. “Of course it was,_ you _were in charge of it.” “Did you have a good time, Robert?” “Yes. I think we are going to do some really good things with PRIDE.” She waits until she hears him settle down into bed before she pads out of the bathroom, heading for the door. “Are you not coming to bed, Tina?” Robert asks as she steps into the hallway. “In a minute, Robert. I just have to send out the thank you notes to the catering company and band,” she murmurs. He grunts in acceptance, and she heads for her office where, after she does, in fact, send thank you’s to all parties involved in the fundraiser, she sets up a hotel reservation for tomorrow night.)_


	4. I tried to call you from the party, it’s full of punks and cannonballers.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where it’s tomorrow night and Janet Stein takes off Tina Minoru’s dress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4! Chapter 5 probably won't be up until may or something bc i don't really wanna work on it without having seen Runaways in a bit and I want it to be good. But it will come don't worry. anyway enjoy!!!!

Janet Stein has done a lot of things in her 25 years of life. She got her PhD, ran three (and a half) marathons, tried acid, the list goes on. One thing that she has failed to do thus far is sleep with another woman. Not because women haven’t wanted to sleep with her, and not because she hasn’t wanted to sleep with them; she certainly has, more times than she cares to admit to herself. She assumed that after marrying Victor it would never be a problem. But now, she’s meeting Tina Minoru later tonight, painfully aware she has no game in this category, and painfully _un_ aware of Tina’s game. There’s one consistent thought as she makes breakfast and sends her husband off with two thermoses and a huge stack of pancakes: _I’m going to have sex with Tina Minoru._

Alone in her empty mansion, she stands in front of her full-length mirror, tracing her bare body with her eyes and pointer finger. There’s a new bruise, which she got all by herself – never get on a treadmill while thinking about the woman you’re in love with and cheating on your husband with – and an old one, which she doesn’t remember getting, but swears to herself she thinks it was a genuine accident. Whether she can convince Tina of that or not is another question. But it doesn’t matter because she’s going to have sex with Tina Minoru.

_From: Tina M – 3:30 pm: picking you up @ 6 xx. To: Tina M – 3:35 pm: can’t wait!_

Given the woman’s stony exterior, Janet never suspected Tina to be the romantic type. But Tina kisses her with all the softness the world doesn’t get to see, and tonight, she’s greeted at 6 pm sharp with the woman leaning against her car in her driveway, a bouquet of roses in those soft hands. “Can I help you?” Janet calls, standing at the top of her staircase, trying to get her breathing under control. “I’ve been searching for the most beautiful woman on the planet,” Tina calls back.

“How’s that been going?”  
“Well, I’m looking at her now, so I’d say it’s been _very_ successful. Come down here." 

Tina kisses her around the roses, tasting like wintergreen and excitement. They drive for twenty minutes, holding hands across the console like teenagers She’s wined and dined at some high ceiling restaurant – Tina, she’s learned, loves high ceilings – and they’re playing footsie under the table. The CEO even feeds her bites of her chocolate cake. “Oh, wait, Janet, you have a little chocolate right…,” Tina starts, gesturing towards her. She swipes her tongue around the corners of her lips. Tina gives her a grin and leans across the table, passing her own thumb over the crumbs. “All clean.” Feeling cheeky, she returns, “For now,” and winks. Tina’s blush is the most beautiful color she’s ever seen.

When ‘for now’ ends, Tina is sitting in her lap, kissing her. They are in a large hotel room, blinds open to let in moonlight and streetlight, and making out on the edge of the bed with a rapidly increasing pace. They’ve never had this before. This much time, this much space, this much freedom. They’ve been so responsible since the first kiss Janet forgot what it felt like to take up space. But here, in this hotel room, she already feels her heart beating out her body’s desire. Tina moves to kiss her neck and collarbones, shifting her weight, and Janet feels her body crying out her desire, too. She moves her hands up Tina’s hips, tugging the woman’s dress zipper down.

_Oh,_ she thinks, when Tina leans up and slips her dress sleeves off, guiding it down to pool around her waist, _Oh!_

“What?” Tina asks, and Janet shuts her gaping mouth. Tina’s not even close to naked and the woman is already the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen.

“Uh, um, nice bra?” she tries, digging her fingers into the smooth muscles of Tina’s back – _I’m going to memorize these muscles._

“You’re so cute when you’re flustered.” Tina’s kissing her again and her heart slams against her rips at Tina’s hands on her chest.

At some point, Janet manages to fully undress Tina, kissing down her body, hungry and desperate, stuttering that she’s never done something like this before. At those words, Tina flips her, pins her down against the mattress, wicked grin on her face. “I’ll show you what I like,” the woman purrs, but she barely hears the words because Tina’s nipples are _right there_ and Tina’s hips are rocking against hers and she does the first thing she can think of, which is kiss and suck the skin in front of her. Tina sighs, a lovely sound, and presses her back down with a, “You first, _tiger,_ ” using her nickname. 

Victor has been the only one to see her naked for the past 5 years. He looks at her like any other guy she’s had sex with does – hungry. Selfishly. Tina’s hands are pulling her clothes off, tossing them haphazardly into the dark. For a moment, they pause; Janet’s chest heaves as she scoots back a little, out from under her lover and back against the pillows, watching Tina with hooded eyes. Tina pushes her black hair away from her face, eyes catching the light from outside, humming some primal approval in the back of her throat. It makes Janet blush even more, if that’s possible.

There’s selfish hunger in those brown eyes sweeping over her body, but then they lock with her own, wider than Janet’s ever seen, as if she’s one of the natural wonders of the world, and Tina is allowed to marvel. “You’re so _beautiful,_ ” Tina whispers, surging up to kiss her again, and she turns to putty in those hands, kissing back with all her might.

Somewhere between Tina’s tongue doing things no one’s ever done and hearing her own name whimpered like she’s a god, Janet thinks, _‘This is what it’s supposed to feel like, isn’t it? Love?’_ Part of her loves Victor – she wouldn’t have married him if she didn’t – but this part, this part that loves Tina is so different… It fits in her ribs, ties itself around her spine, rests its head on the especially squishy part of her heart that makes her swoon every time Tina kisses her neck. Which is happening a lot tonight, between whispered words and wandering hands; Tina kisses rough and messy and she knows a turtleneck is in her future, but she doesn’t care because this is how it’s supposed to feel. 

“Hey,” Tina whispers in her ear, “I hate to ask…”

“Do you want me to make you cum again?” she laughs, looking down at the woman grinning up from between her thighs.

“Would you hate that?” Janet shakes her head, sits up, pushes Tina onto her back.

“No. I’d love that.” 

_(Janet Stein has done a lot of things in her 25 years of life. Tonight, she has done something so beautiful it’s hard for her to breathe – not just because of where her nose is – and she has to take a moment to inhale. Tina’s fingers run through her blonde locks softly, not moving her, but a quiet suggestion to, well, get back to it. She does, happily, and Tina groans softly, thighs tightening by her ears. Janet Stein is good at a lot of things, too. Apparently sex with Tina Minoru is one of them.)_

**Author's Note:**

> So this kind of just popped into my head. I wanted to explore the pairing Tina/Janet way before the start of the show. A lot of it is just fluffy backstory I wanted to give to the characters but uhhhh I just really love this ship (if you couldn't tell by the three fics I've published already). Takes place 20 years or so before the start of runaways, right when they (the members of PRIDE) first meet for the first time (so gene and alice are still alive).


End file.
